AFC and NFC Championship 2011 - Steelers and Bears Will Win

On Sunday the AFC and NFC Championship 2011 are upon us. Save your brain, the Steelers and Bears will win. Why? Over the last 11 games, the home team has won 8 times. That's a 72.7 percent home field win rate advantage. Moreover, the Packers' win over the Atlanta Falcons came on the fast track over the dome that defines the Georgia Dome. The temperature? About 70 degrees.

The NFC Championship Game will be played outdoors at Soldiers Field in Chicago, and in temperatures that may be as low as 8 degrees. The elements will play a factor here and that wasn't the case in Atlanta for the Packers.

Additionally, the Chicago Bears know the Green Bay Packers and Lovie Smith, more than any other coach in 21st Century Bears history, understands the objective is always to beat the Packers. He said so when he was hired.

The other x-factor is Bears Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz. He saves his best work for championship games, and its been a long time since he's been with a team in this position. Look for Martz to bring in new formations to confuse the Packers and cause receivers to be wide open.

Pick the Bears to blow-out the Packers.

The home field advantage also applies to the Steelers versus the Jets. Moreover while the New York Jets defense is good, The Steelers have the NFL's number one ranked defense. The Jets Offense is going to have a hard time getting anything going in a game that means so much to a team playing as much for history as it is against the Jets.

If the Steelers win, they will hold the NFL record for Super Bowl appearances with nine.

Pick the Steelers.

Steelers vs. Bears in Super Bowl 45, with the Chicago Bears winning it all!

Animoto Pre-Crunchies Party, San Francisco, CA 2011 #Tech

The Crunchies, the annual Tech Community event hosted by Tech Crunch with Venture Beat and Gigaom got off to a rousing start for those invited to the Animoto Pre-Crunchies Party. The event, staged to present the online platform's new offices at 333 Kearny St. in San Francisco, was every bit the "go-go-era" happening.

The ultra-modern glass and utilitarian office provided the perfect backdrop for an audience so tech, hip, and sexy, with black the prevailing dress color, that it looked like the set for a stylish sci-fi movie. Yep, DJ included; this is the 21st Century. Moreover, Animoto is a 21st Century product.

Animoto is a platform that takes your uploaded photos and music and other media and turns them into high-quality videos. The video can, if you wish, be shared with YouTube, RealBird, or other platforms. Animoto has been on a fast growth path, with over 1 million visitors as of this writing, and gained 750,000 sign-ups in just three days via its Facebook app. This blogger is a registered user of Animoto, and was before this blog post and the interview with Brad Jefferson, its CEO.

Back To The Animoto Party

The party was well-attended, with about half of the revelers going to The Crunchies, and the other half, not. Some familiar friends to this blogger were there, like Sylvia Paul, the East Bay PR specialist Fast Company calls a "Silicon Valley Public Relations Icon", and who's known for her lunches connecting brilliant and interesting people and sometimes just plain good-old folks.

Andrew Mager was there, and someone known to this space since 2007, when Owen Thomas, then the Editor of ValleyWag, had his Friday cocktail gatherings at Moose's. Now, Mager's with SimpleGeo, a platform that allows you to make location-based apps.

There was an abundance of four things: pulsating music, conversation, food, and drink. Add to that the eye-candy (for girls too, I hope, but some of the guys, new to this kind of party said they were actually surprised the women looked so good! Seriously.)

Around 6:30, Jefferson announced that those going to The Crunchies should leave to board one of two complementary busses headed to the event at The Palace of Fine Arts.   Cool.

Now, I expected a standard large "airport bus" style vehicle with all seats facing forward.

Hell no.

What we got was a bus that was a giant limo, with all seats, save the ones in back, facing sideways, and a stripper poll at the center.  And if you think I'm kidding, look at the video.  You'll see it.

We were allowed to bring our drinks on the bus and Animoto provided more buckets of bottles of beer for the riders.  The drink, the rocking bus, the company, the pole, and the sideways passenger positioning, and one man's claim that a woman on the bus invented the Internet, made for an interesting trip to the The Crunchies.

Thankfully, I know my cut-off point for cocktails, and I hit it on the bus.

Besides, I had to do some live blogging.

CNN Should Get Keith Olbermann Now Before Fox News Does

If CNN has any hunger for success, any backbone or spine, and any interest in gaining ratings, the Cable News Network would grab Keith Olbermann and sign him to a contract today. To say that MSNBC will be hurt by Keith's ouster is an understatement.

MSNBC has nothing else to offer to even half-way challenge Fox News in the prime time show segment areas. Keith grew into the MSNBC theme park attraction; the Cinderella's Castle around which all other shows were connected to like the spokes in a wheel.

Now, the hub is gone.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin's famous ego battles with Keith prove once again that ego is first the friend, then the enemy, of success. If Griffin wants to prove he's a capable manager of top-notch talent, he has to find a new way of dealing with people who have large egos. Keith's a diva - deal with it. It's worth it.

CNN needs Keith Olbermann. It's prime time show program ratings are terrible. Parker / Spitzer still hasn't taken off. Piers Morgan's not going to catch on any time soon unless he tweaks his show, and Anderson Cooper 360 isn't the powerhouse it used to be.

CNN needs a spark, and Keith Olbermann, with his following of millions of people, can provide it.

More on the Keith Olbermann ouster here.

Keith Olbermann Leaves MSNBC

USA Today online is one of the many news sources reporting that Keith Olbermann has permanently left MSNBC:

"There were many occasions, particularly in the last 2 years, where all that surrounded the show — but never the show itself — was just too much for me," Olbermann said.


The 51-year-old had the MSNBC's highest rated evening anchor. The New York Times reports that in 2008 he signed a four-year contract extension that estimated to be $30 million.